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Hugo Schultz
In Biggles in Mexico, Hugo Schultz was an agent, probably a representative of the Russian government, who had been sent to meet Nicolas Brabinsky and his gang in the village of Eltora in Mexico. An expert in the valuation of gems and a master smuggler, Schultz was tasked to buy over the diamonds which the gang had seized in a robbery in the City of London. Smuggling had been Schultz's specialty for most of his life. Before the war, he had been engaged in a smuggling run in France which had gone wrong, resulting in him shooting a customs officer in Marseilles. Schultz was arrested and thrown into a French prison. Later, when Germany occupied France, the Gestapo released Schultz and used him for smuggling operations. After the war, he fled to Russia where again, he had no difficulty finding employment which exploited his skills. Von Stalhein had worked with him once when he had to act as escort and interpreter for Schultz on a diamond buying mission to the United States. At that time, Schultz had suggested that he and von Stalhein should split the jewels and keep them, and tell their employers that they had been seized by customs, a suggestion which von Stalhein refused. According to von Stalhein, Schultz was about sixty at the time of the events in Biggles in Mexico. He was tall, heavily built, clean-shaven and balding in front. He wore glasses and had a round face and a calm expression which gave him the appearance of a benevolent university professor. In fact he occasionally used the persona of a professor from Heidelberg University. He walked with a limp, the result of a deformity from a car accident in his youth. Von Stalhein warned Biggles that Schultz was a dangerous man because he carried a gun and was always ready to use it. Biggles and Ginger were to find this warning only too true. When Schultz arrived in Eltora with two other confederates, he found to his chagrin that Brabinsky had been arrested for murdering his fellow gang member Carlos Cornelli. Schultz lost no time in helping Brabinsky break out of jail. Next he and his confederates had to search for Brabinsky's car which fellow gang member Samuel Brimshawe had hired out to Ginger. Schultz kidnapped Ginger and held him and Brabinsky as virtual prisoners, forcing them to lead the search for the vehicle which had broken down and which Ginger had abandoned in the desert earlier. When the car had been found and Schultz thought his goal was near at hand, he did not hesitate to shoot Brabinsky who was in the act of running away from the scene. Schultz would have shot Ginger also, but fortunately Biggles intervened in time. Schultz's ruthless manner of working was also his undoing. Towards the end of the book, Biggles later found Schultz dead from a gunshot. Biggles thought he was probably shot by one of his confederates, who most likely wanted to abscond with the money they had brought along to buy the diamonds. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Air Police era characters